Think Of All The Stars
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1098a: What if, when the Doctor asked Quinn if she wanted to go with him at the end of the day, she had said yes? - Alternate ending to You'll Find Wonder - Anniversary cycle day 6 of 21, shift A


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!_

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_**THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: **It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!_

_**This story** is an Alternate Ending to You'll Find Wonder, a Doctor Who/Glee crossover, originally posted (alternately) from April 13 to June 13 2012._

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_**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: Kiss Me In The Morning._

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**"Think of All the Stars"  
11th Doctor & Quinn Fabray  
Doctor Who/Glee crossover  
_(Alternate ending to "You'll Find Wonder")_**

She returned to the control room, where the Doctor was trailing along the console. "So… How does this work?" she asked and he looked up. He took in her appearance, had a sad smile… She guessed he was sad to see her go, and she smiled back. He pointed to the cuff.

"It's all set to take you back to the point in time and space where you were taken from. I'll show you where to press."

"And what happens after that?" she asked, and he honestly had no idea what to tell her, until she went on. "What do I do with it, I mean isn't it bad to have technology that doesn't exist yet? Like it makes bad things happen?"

"I've also set it so you'll travel, but it won't," he promised. He took a breath. He just stared at her face, those eyes, staring back at him, and… he couldn't help himself. "Unless… There is another possibility in all this."

"Is there?" she asked.

"You could come with me," he told her.

"Go with you where?" she moved up to the console.

"Anywhere, any… when… The future, the past, the present, and everything in between, as you understand it. All these worlds you've seen tonight, oh… you only got a glimpse, and there are so many more. I could take you to see them, you could have so many more adventures before you put on that pink dress again." Maybe he couldn't save her, he knew… but he could give her this, couldn't he? No problem there…

"What would happen if I never went back?" she found herself asking, and she looked back to him. She wasn't sure what had made her say it, when she'd only ever thought of it, a fancy, just looking at options. As scared as she'd been in the beginning, with all she had experienced, it felt like there was still so much she could do. She could travel with him, help people like they'd helped those at the circus.

"Is that something you would…" he started, hesitant as he considered her. Now he was thinking maybe he should just have kept to himself.

"I don't know, I mean I'm just asking… hypothetically, if I never went back…"

"Then you would disappear. They never know where you'd gone off to," he told her, and her face shrank; she couldn't do that.

"At the beginning though, you said it could take… a year, for us to find Carter, get him to send me back, and when I'd go back it'd be the same moment, like I'd never left."

"That's right," he confirmed. She saw herself in a reflective surface before her, and she observed her face, that of an eighteen-year-old girl.

"I could go a few years, if I wanted to. As long as I still looked my age when I went back…" she supposed. He came around to stand by her. She looked back to him. "Whoever decided what an age looked like anyway," she gave him a smirk.

He realized his mistake now. He couldn't do it. He couldn't take her with him, as much as he wanted to. And now she was starting to consider it, coming with him, for an extended period of time. If she hadn't asked that first question as she had, he might have been able to do it, but he could see where this would end up. She'd say she would go back, but she wouldn't. And one day she wouldn't be able to go back, not without looking for all like she'd aged dramatically overnight. She wouldn't go back, if he took her. He could tell himself he was saving her, if he was taking away from an accident that could possibly kill her.

But then there was that word, possibly. She could survive. Carter could have lied, too, even if the Doctor didn't think he was. Either way, he could be robbing her of something precious, taking her away from people who cared for her… If the choice had been left to him, he would have taken her, and oh how they would have run the two of them. Maybe he would have done it before, but standing here, his conscience was telling him her path was to go home, whatever that could mean.

"Hey, you okay?" He looked over, and he saw he'd been leaning forward, hands against the console. He stood back up, breathing out.

"Yes, I'm… Well, if you're going to be coming with me, then I suppose we won't be needing… this…" he picked up the cuff and looked at it, frowned.

"What is it?" Quinn asked, and after a moment he turned to her.

"I should have looked at it closely," he told her, and she frowned, confused. "There's a… I guess you could call it an expiration date."

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"It means this will stop working, within the day. If we let it run out, then you won't be able to return." She stared at it, at him. She looked uncertain, and he hoped for both their sakes that he was convincing enough. "I will take you with me, if that's what you want. But if I do, then you will never be able to go back. Your family, your friends, pink dress wedding friend, you won't ever get to see them again."

"Can't you just get another one?" she asked him.

"Oh, sure, I'll just pop in a shop and buy one," he joked, and she gave a half a glare. "These are rare enough as it is, sorry," he told her. She kept on staring, no doubt considering it all, trying to convince herself that she could do it, that she could leave her whole world behind, with no means to return. He couldn't bear the wait, but it had to be her choice. Finally she had looked at the cuff in his hand, and she had reached out, taking it from him.

"So what button do I have to press?" she asked, looking back to him. He gave a sad smile, putting a hand to her shoulder. "I kind of wish you'd never made that offer now…" she laughed, though he could see she was sad, too.

"Sorry," he told her, and she shook her head.

"It's alright," she promised him. "I can still pretend… imagine it for myself."

"You should," he agreed, even if he felt his face was this close to breaking, having to pretend like he didn't know what would happen once she pressed that button. "Always." She let out a breath, standing up straighter. She was getting ready.

"This button here," she spoke to herself before looking back to him. "Goodbye, Doctor," she had to say it. "As aliens go, you're alright," she smirked.

"Oh, you would know," he smiled back, then after a moment. "Goodbye… Quinn Fabray," he told her. She looked to him a moment more, and then she closed her eyes, pressing the button. One blink later, she was gone, and the cuff, the still very usable cuff, fell to the TARDIS floor. He crouched, picked it up with a shaking hand.

He shouldn't have asked her. Now he felt like he'd killed her.

THE END


End file.
